64 WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



F.v.M. Tod., Eelaz. Cult, dei Cot. 117 ; Moore and Betche, 

 Handbook FL Neio S.W. p. 61 ; Maiden, Useful Native Plants of 

 Australia, 1889, p. 131 ; OIENFUEGOSIA GOSSIPIOIDES. Hochr., 

 Ann. du Conserv. du Jard. Bot. de Geneve 1902, p. 56 ; Aliotta, 

 Rivis. Grit. Gen. Goss., 1903, p. 99 (sp. excl). 



Descrip- ^ glabrous shrub, prominently warted. Leaves ovate-deltoid, 



apiculate, quite entire, veins eglandular, but often splitting length- 

 wise (f. 6) ; stipules minute, caducous ; bracteoles 3, ovate oblong, 

 cordate, apiculate or bristle-tipped, entire, quite free from each 

 other (f. 3), shortly clawed, inserted at different levels, and some- 

 times furnished with a supplementary bracteole within and above 

 the others and attached to the calyx-tube (ff. 4 and 4a) ; calyx 

 campanulate, smooth, with 5 large triangular acute mucronate teeth, 

 each having 3 veins (ff. 2, 3 and 4) ; seeds ovate acute truncate 

 below, coated with very short closely adherent rusty wool not 

 separable into two coats (f. 5). (See Plate No. 2, ff. 1-7.) 



This is a striking and highly ornamental species, yet it does not appear 

 to have ever been cultivated, and in consequence has not in any way con- 

 tributed to the long series of floss-yielding races. It is a shrub quite 

 glabrous in all its parts, except the outer surface of the corolla. Twigs 

 round, smooth, purplish, prominently gland-dotted. Leaves coriaceous, 

 glaucous, smooth, prominently reticulated both above and below, ovate 

 deltoid, very minutely cordate, acute apiculate, quite entire but 3-5 veined, 

 eglandular, about 1 to 1 inches long, and a little less in breadth ; petiole 

 usually retained in an ascending attitude, a little longer than the blade 

 and strongly gland-dotted. Stipules narrow linear lanceolate, caducous. 

 Inflorescence in the form of ascending lateral leaf and flower-bearing 

 shoots (f. 1) that assume a corymbose condition, so that the flowers are 

 never truly axillary, individual flower-stalks about an inch long, angled 

 through a prolongation from the base of the bracteoles. Bracteoles 

 3, thick, smooth, glabrous, ovate oblong cordate, quite entire, acute apiculate 

 or beaked, 7 to 9 veined, quite free from each other and shortly clawed, 

 attachment variable, often on the calyx-tube. Flowers medium-sized, 

 rose-purple with large dark spots; corolla with short well-formed claws, 

 woolly on the margins (f. 7) as also on half of the outer surface, distinctly 

 gland-dotted ; calyx smooth quite glabrous, gland-dotted, campanulate, with 

 'five large well-formed triangular teeth that end in stout mucros, veins 

 three to each sepal, arching up towards and conniving in the sharp rigid 

 beak. Pollen-grains of medium size, having a thick wall of two distinct 

 layers and coarse linear obtuse hyaline spines that do not seem to arise from 

 tubercles. (See Plate No. 53 f. 4.) Fruit ovate-rotund acute, shortly apiculate, 

 embraced and enclosed by the persistent bracteoles, gland-dotted, 4-celled ; 

 seeds 5 in each cell, ovate acute truncate at the lower end, coated with very 

 short closely adherent rusty wool that shows no tendency to separate into two 

 layers or coats corresponding to the floss and fuzz of the cultivated species. 



